In the space of one move he didn’t need to do, Max Verstappen threw away an 11-point advantage in the Spanish Grand Prix and put himself within touching distance of a race ban.
Verstappen’s chances of winning a fifth title were already going to be a challenge heading into the season thanks to a resurgent McLaren, but he’s now made the job ten times harder with his antics at the Circuit de Barcelona.
It seemed like an isolated incident brought on by discontent over a potential penalty from Verstappen, but his frustration could be traced back to an earlier decision when the Safety Car came out.
Verstappen told his team that he wanted a fresh set of tyres to capitalise at the restart, but he only had one new set of each available dry tyre left in his allocation. Having used the soft in his first stint and the medium in his second, Red Bull’s only options were six-lap-old softs or new hards for the second stint.
Emerging from the pits with hard tyres on, Verstappen was irate about the decision to pit.
| Lap | Driver | Engineer |
| Lap 54 | Verstappen: “Do we have another set of tyres? It will make a difference, fresh tyres.” | |
| Lap 55 | Verstappen: “Why the f— are we – what is this tyre?” | |
| Lambiase: “That’s the hard tyre, Max.” | ||
| Verstappen: “Why are we on a hard?” | ||
| Lambaise: “That was the only option.” | ||
| Verstappen: “Has anyone else used it?” | ||
| Lambiase: “Negative.” |
Perhaps it would have been better to stay out on his mediums, which had only done 18 laps; it’s a tyre that could comfortably do 27 laps at a reasonable pace. But it’s this action that fuels a rather unnecessary skirmish with George Russell at the restart.
Max Verstappen doesn’t question team order to let George Russell past
It was clear Verstappen was on the wrong tyre when he almost spun exiting the final corner at the Safety Car restart, displaying impressive car control in what is a very narrow Red Bull cockpit.
Verstappen would be overtaken by Charles Leclerc and would later be put under pressure from Russell, who attempted a move at Turn 1 before forcing the Dutchman to take to the escape road.
Fearing he could get a penalty his engineer, Giampiero Lambiase, told him to give the position back, leading to a rather flustered radio exchange.
| Driver | Engineer |
| Lambiase: “Max can you let Russell through please? Let Russell through.” | |
| Verstappen: “I was ahead mate, what the f—-?” | |
| Lambiase: “My advice is to let him through.” | |
| Verstappen: “I was ahead and he just ran me off the road.” | |
| Lambiase: “But that’s the rules. That’s the rules we have to play with, but that’s the rules.” |
Verstappen was right to maintain his position and the stewards would later confirm there was no further action after investigating him, but it was clear that frustration spilled onto the track when he deliberately hit Russell at Turn 5.
The Dutchman wanted to make it awkward for Russell, giving him just enough so he could claim he gave the position back, before bullying him out of the way to retake the place. It was an unnecessary move and one that Verstappen later admitted was “not right” on social media.
Lando Norris said he’d done something similar on Mario Kart after the race. While his comments may be flippant, we know how much of a keen sim racer Verstappen is, and that was a similar move you might see on an online lobby in the F1 videogame.
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Why didn’t Max Verstappen question his team?
Verstappen had moments of madness on track before, notably when he collided with Lewis Hamilton during last year’s Hungarian Grand Prix or when he was blocked by Russell in Qatar, leading to an all-out war of words in Abu Dhabi.
Speaking on the F1 TV post-race show, Alex Brundle explained how he felt Verstappen panicked as a result of the decisions made by him and the team.
“He’s cost himself a lot of positions by panicking,” said Brundle. “He’s thought in the moment, he’s on the wrong tyre, he’s on the tyre he doesn’t want to be on, he’s run backwards in the field and he’s not sure about whether he agrees with the team to let George Russell back through. The incident on the outside of T5 is the result.”
It begs the question of why Verstappen didn’t question whether the team had been instructed to give the position back to Russell by Race Control, given Lambiase told him it was his ‘advice’ rather than any particular instruction from officials.
In these scenarios, the Race Director will usually inform the team that their driver should give a position back, otherwise they’ll be referred to the stewards for leaving the track and gaining an advantage.
Had Lambiase been more specific with his wording, it’s possible Verstappen would have avoided the collision that has now cost him and the team in the title race.
